Award

Clinical Immunology diagnostics service

THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Award

21 Jul 2025 at 12:07

Summary of the contracting process

The University of Birmingham has completed a procurement process for a Clinical Immunology diagnostics service, with the contract being awarded to SEBIA (UK) LTD. This procurement project focuses on enhancing the Clinical Immunology Service at the university, which plays a crucial role in providing diagnostics for the West Midlands and contributes to national research efforts. The direct award, valued at £57,000, entails acquiring and upgrading essential laboratory equipment, such as the Capillarys 3 Octa, to ensure seamless service continuity during the transition to the Precision Health Technologies Accelerator within the Birmingham Health Innovation Campus. This investment aims to sustain the service’s growth, efficiency, and quality, aligning with the university’s goal to advance in the diagnostics field. The contract is set to commence on 28th July 2025, running until 27th July 2030, primarily focused within the UK.

This tender presents significant opportunities for businesses specialising in laboratory and research services, particularly those with expertise in immunodiagnostic equipment. Companies that provide advanced technology solutions in diagnostics equipment can find prospects for growth by engaging with such well-established research entities. The procurement process, conducted via direct award, highlights the university's reliance on consistent supplier relationships, offering SMEs like SEBIA (UK) LTD an advantageous position. Businesses that provide complementary or innovative solutions in the healthcare technology and diagnostics sectors could establish or expand collaborations with prestigious institutions like the University of Birmingham, contributing to advancements in healthcare diagnostics and enhancing their market presence.

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Notice Title

Clinical Immunology diagnostics service

Notice Description

The Clinical Immunology Service (CIS) provides a comprehensive Clinical Immunology diagnostics service to the West Midlands, regional services in lymphoma/leukaemia diagnosis and national services for neuro-immunology and myeloma testing. Being situated within the University of Birmingham (UoB), the CIS also provides central trials analysis for a number of national and local research studies and has a strong track record in immunodiagnostic development. The CIS is the anchor tenant for the Precision Health Technologies Accelerator (PHTA) Home - PHTA Ltd, hosted within the Birmingham Health Innovation Campus (BHIC) Birmingham Health Innovation Campus - Birmingham Health Partners. This ambitious new development will leverage the existing Birmingham Health Partners ecosystem to drive innovation and economic growth. The CIS has built a nationally leading reputation based on our foundations of quality and delivery and has the expertise, reputation, and networks to progress towards being a global leader in diagnostic development, translation and testing. This supports UoB's ambition to become a global top 50 University and contributes towards the success of the PHTA and BHIC. To ensure the CIS not only remains able to deliver and maintain current business and workload, but also to ensure it can sustain delivery during the move to the PHTA and deliver the anticipated growth in the future, we need to continually update our equipment and methods to ensure improved efficiency, quality and capabilities. The CIS is a UKAS ISO15189 accredited laboratory offering comprehensive blood cancer, autoimmunity, neuroimmunology, immunodeficiency and allergy diagnostic services to local and national NHS services. Additionally, the CIS hosts the Midlands Integrated Reporting for Haemato-oncology (MIRHO), a blood cancer diagnostic service, providing blood cancer flow cytometry to the whole of West Midlands; this is an area of ensured increased growth as new therapies are commenced and survival improves for blood cancer patients. To support the growth and development of this service we need to update our serum protein electrophoresis and immunofixation/isoelectric focussing instrumentation to improve our efficiency and resilience. Our plan is to replace our existing Sebia Capillarys 2 with a Capillarys 3 Octa and to add an additional Hydrasys focussing system to provide additional capacity, a back-up instrument in case of down time and the ability to run isoelectric focussing gel for oligoclonal band analysis in multiple sclerosis and beta 2 transferrin detection in patients with cerebrospinal fluid leaks.

Procurement Information

* Our aim is to replace our existing Sebia Capillarys 2 with a Capillarys 3 Octa and to add an additional Hydrasys focussing system to provide additional capacity, a back-up instrument in case of down time and the ability to run isoelectric focussing gel for oligoclonal band analysis in multiple sclerosis and beta 2 transferrin detection in patients with cerebrospinal fluid leaks. This will also allow us to consolidate maintenance costs and maximise efficiency through integration of multiple platforms through the same interface to our laboratory information management system (LIMS). * We currently use Sebia instrumentation and reagents/kits for all of our electrophoresis and immunofixation work. This has been in place for at least 15 years and in order to maintain consistency of results to both clinical and myeloma trial patients, who have been monitored during this period, we need to continue using the same supplier. * All of the tests that we currently run on these platforms are included in our UKAS ISO15189:2022 accredited scope. To change supplier would involve significant cost and time in re-validation/verification of these tests which would impact on our ability to provide an ongoing, reliable clinical service.

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-0562e9
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/041631-2025
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK5 - Transparency Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Direct
Procurement Method Details
Direct award
Tender Suitability
Not specified
Awardee Scale
SME

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

73 - Research and development services and related consultancy services


CPV Codes

73111000 - Research laboratory services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
£57,000 Under £100K
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
21 Jul 20257 months ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
21 Jul 20257 months ago
Contract Period
27 Jul 2025 - 27 Jul 2030 Over 5 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Complete
Awards Status
Pending
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
Contact Name
Not specified
Contact Email
procurement@bham.ac.uk
Contact Phone
Not specified

Buyer Location

Locality
BIRMINGHAM
Postcode
B15 2TT
Post Town
Birmingham
Country
England

Major Region (ITL 1)
TLG West Midlands (England)
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLG3 West Midlands
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLG31 Birmingham
Delivery Location
Not specified

Local Authority
Birmingham
Electoral Ward
Edgbaston
Westminster Constituency
Birmingham Edgbaston

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
1
Supplier Name

SEBIA (UK

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts.

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